Dave Free Speaks On The Making Of Jay Rock’s ‘Say Wassup’ [SM Exclusive]

Jul 25 2011

Victor Sandoval

With all of the incredible buzz surrounding Jay Rock’s Follow Me Home, the release of the “Say Wassup” music video has only intensified the anticipation from fans. Top Dawg Entertainment’s social media director, Dave Free, spoke with us recently regarding the making of the unique music video. Joking around the streets of Los Angeles, Black Hippy captured a moment on camera that calls back to the days when hip hop was not so serious. As Dave Free explained, the music video was all about fun.

How difficult was it to write a treatment for the video?

I set up that video and I picked the locations. There wasn’t a treatment for it, but I just picked the locations for it. The idea was just places we wanted to shoot. I want to say that was the idea, more or so with it. There was a time in hip hop which is fun. It wasn’t about this and that and gangbanging. It was just about having fun, being out and showing people that you can have fun. You don’t have to be serious all the time.

With a hand in the making of the video, can you tell us where some of the scenes took place?

The construction yard was in Paramount , California. It was this old abandoned building that we did a photo shoot at a long time ago. I was like man, ‘It would be cool to sneak up in there and like shoot a video.’ “Say Wassup”, there’s so much energy and so much stuff going on, it would have been really hard to write a treatment based on that many artists rapping that fast. It was easier to come with something that was just having fun. All around the city, having fun. Going to places in the city that people don’t normally see.

How do you make sure that a loosely based concept like that will turn out effective?

To be real, it was directed by APlus and the artists. It was really the artists as the cameraman and they’re the ones acting out the scenes. For so long, people have followed the trend of always having to do the story. The story, to be honest with you, a lot of these stories are not that great. That’s why artists like Lil B can come out and do a hundred videos, all exactly the same, and all he’s doing is just rapping. It’s a new game. People just want to see something different. I think it helps ground people to show that the artists are regular people that like to have fun, like to let our hair down, and fuck around too. Not just always trying to game you, or teach you something or educate you.

Fans can hear brand new material from Black Hippy on Jay Rock’s Follow Me Home, and be sure to check out the official music video for “Say Wassup” below.